Euro Area

[Furunculus]

Do you want to make a bet if UK will be stronger then Germany economically 2050? Im betting Germany.

Yes:
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/fil...er_in_2050.pdf
No:
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&sou...ad=rja&cad=rja
Yes:
http://www.nber.org/~wbuiter/3G.pdf

two out of three eh, why yes, i think i'll take that bet.

The future of Europe should be Europe, but only if there is real thrive for it, you cant force integration.

quite, that is the problem precisely!

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eight things the eurozone needs to do, today, and won't:

http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/201...hat-should-be/

[Furunculus]

re my previous question; at what point did europe forget that deeper-union was a a means to an end, not the ends in itself -

http://www.economist.com/node/21524818

How much more fiscal and political integration does the euro need? Nobody knows. Are citizens ready to give up more sovereignty to save the euro? Nobody has asked them. The more leaders try to fix the euro’s flaws the more they risk exposing a flaw in the European Union itself: a project of European integration that lacks a strong democratic mandate.

[Furunculus]

It's 2.21 according to Bloomberg, and it's down from 3.99% last month...

Your thinking is altogether too wishful for my taste.

AII

i'm pretty sure it remains in the 2.7% benchmark:

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2011...mpact-of-usaa/

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Nigel Farage:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/UPn07X3lJBk

You can see nobody listening.

*Sigh*

[Vladimir]

Nigel Farage:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/UPn07X3lJBk

You can see nobody listening.

*Sigh*

All this guy does is complain but I love to hear him speak.

I want to see this guy live in concert.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

All this guy does is complain but I love to hear him speak.

I want to see this guy live in concert.

He called it though, didn't he? Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, unable to adapt and devalue their currancies.

He's also right about rising anti-EU nationalism.

Two years ago I would have called him a crock, but increasingly I think he has been right all along about one thing, the fatal lack of consent.

[Vladimir]

He called it though, didn't he? Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, unable to adapt and devalue their currancies.

He's also right about rising anti-EU nationalism.

Two years ago I would have called him a crock, but increasingly I think he has been right all along about one thing, the fatal lack of consent.

That's another reason why I like him. The problem is, as I see it, that he doesn't have any solutions. If he does, he's not able to implement them. His party affiliation makes me think he just wants out of the party that the UK isn't even attending.

He's right, dead right, but complaining about a problem comes after identifying it and should be used to motivate yourself to find a way to fix it.

[Adrian II]

That's another reason why I like him. The problem is, as I see it, that he doesn't have any solutions. If he does, he's not able to implement them. His party affiliation makes me think he just wants out of the party that the UK isn't even attending.

He's right, dead right, but complaining about a problem comes after identifying it and should be used to motivate yourself to find a way to fix it.

The Soviet analogy is just silly, but Farage is right in many other ways. As an editor I was among the opponents of the euro in 1991 for some of the same reasons he mentions, like the lack of democratic control and the fatal flaw of tying net importing and net exporting nations to one currency. I was first and foremost against it because the Maastricht treaty enshrined all the trappings of neoliberalism such as a totally independent European central bank. For similar reasons I was against the 2004 Constitution Treaty which was voted down by the Dutch in 2005.

Even so, I always thought that the EU would compensate for the euro's flaws. What we see now is that the kind of leadership we need is missing, not so much in Brussels, but in Berlin, Paris, London, also in Washington, and in The Hague as well. The Merkels and Sarkozy's and Camerons have practically abdicated and left the field to people like Barroso and Van Rompuy who have no mandate and who get no respect.

AII

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

The Soviet analogy is just silly, but Farage is right in many other ways.

The democratic deficit, and the insistance on pushing through an authoritarian objective "for the good of the people" without their consent is reminisent of Soviet thinking, which I think is his general thrust. As an old fashioned Tory he is understandably enraged by this sort of thinking.

Even so, I always thought that the EU would compensate for the euro's flaws. What we see now is that the kind of leadership we need is missing, not so much in Brussels, but in Berlin, Paris, London, also in Washington, and in The Hague as well. The Merkels and Sarkozy's and Camerons have practically abdicated and left the field to people like Barroso and Van Rompuy who have no mandate and who get no respect.

AII

I would say this is the flaw in the EU's structure, central government hostage to local interests. Merkel did not go back to Germany and put the new bailout to a vote, she went on holiday. Under those circumstances Cameron can either sit in London and look miserable or take his wife and children on holiday, benefitting the rural Italian economy in the process. There's one Tuscan cafe with a cute waitress that's going to be getting a lot more British custom already.

[Adrian II]

I would say this is the flaw in the EU's structure, central government hostage to local interests.

No, it's the failure of politicians to rise above local or special interests. We've seen the same thing happen in the US which has a centralized government and a President with a clear mandate. The Merkels of this world know full well - or should know - that local interests are best served at the present by far-reaching measures.

Merkel did not go back to Germany and put the new bailout to a vote, she went on holiday. Under those circumstances Cameron can either sit in London and look miserable or take his wife and children on holiday, benefitting the rural Italian economy in the process. There's one Tuscan cafe with a cute waitress that's going to be getting a lot more British custom already.

I'm taking my euro's to Greece in a couple of weeks. But I'm a private person. This is not the sort of leadership I was hoping to see from EU leaders.

AII

[InsaneApache]

I'm taking my euro's to Greece in a couple of weeks. But I'm a private person. This is not the sort of leadership I was hoping to see from EU leaders.

I'd take more than you took on your last visit. A lot more.

[Vladimir]

Even so, I always thought that the EU would compensate for the euro's flaws. What we see now is that the kind of leadership we need is missing, not so much in Brussels, but in Berlin, Paris, London, also in Washington, and in The Hague as well. The Merkels and Sarkozy's and Camerons have practically abdicated and left the field to people like Barroso and Van Rompuy who have no mandate and who get no respect.

AII

I heard the Stig would have been EU president but his face was too recognizable.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Nah, I think the Stig would do better as president of the USA. Unswerving and uncompromising and never uttered a single lie, that one.

[Furunculus]

I heard the Stig would have been EU president but his face was too recognizable.

lol, precisely the problem; who is that and why do i care?

[Vladimir]

Nah, I think the Stig would do better as president of the USA. Unswerving and uncompromising and never uttered a single lie, that one.

Yes but he's clueless about ducks (and waterfowl in general). That would ruin relations with Canada!

[Tellos Athenaios]

Yes but he's clueless about ducks (and waterfowl in general). That would ruin relations with Canada!

But he won't reveal his ignorance by saying something foolish about fowl either, which is more than can be said for most US president candidates. Besides, I thought that to be an US president you had to have at least one major flaw in your education. When English is among the accepted handicaps, why not Ornithology? Also, you are running Mozilla Firefox in US English, your browser window is 1360×647 (w×h) in size, and that Google duck is watching you.

[Papewaio]

As long as you are not so clueless as when duck hunting you shoot a friend...

[Furunculus]

£250 billion wiped off the UK stock market in the last week, how you guys on either side of the water doing?

[Adrian II]

£250 billion wiped off the UK stock market in the last week, how you guys on either side of the water doing?

Free fall continuing, investors moving into gold and bonds. However there is a feeling this is not the Big One yet.

AII

[Furunculus]

interesting rumours that socgen and unicredit are on the brink:

http://tinyurl.com/3z2o8ty

fun times!

[Papewaio]

Free fall continuing, investors moving into gold and bonds. However there is a feeling this is not the Big One yet.

AII

I wonder how the likes of Warren Buffet and similar investors are doing? They are after all the ones who look at the fundamentals... if Warren is panicking then it's maybe time for brown alert.

[Adrian II]

I wonder how the likes of Warren Buffet and similar investors are doing? They are after all the ones who look at the fundamentals... if Warren is panicking then it's maybe time for brown alert.

Markets are showing a weak recovery all over Europe as we speak. It's not the big meltdown yet.

AII

[Furunculus]

ze germans are beginning to cotton on to the fact they will be underwriting 30% of the value of the ECB's planned 'industrial bond purchasing in italy and spain, and causing higher inflation in the eurozone as a result of the increased money supply:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...779183,00.html

[Kagemusha]

All the exchances are on negative still, the fall is less today, but if this the effect of the stimulus of the centralbank, it does not promise anything good. This is the longest fall since 2003 in Europes exchances and what is interesting the market analycist seem to be feeding the hysteria like no tomorrow. In Finland one of the key economist said in interview today that the only cure might be a significant drop of living standards in Western World. Sometimes i just have to wonder does some of people have any shame in their greed.

[Adrian II]

interesting rumours that socgen and unicredit are on the brink:

http://tinyurl.com/3z2o8ty

fun times!

Ehm..

AII

[Furunculus]

Ehm..

AII

yeah, i read that.

unicredit?

[Adrian II]

yeah, i read that.

unicredit?

I guess Uni don't hav-va da same big-ga balls as SocGen.

AII

[Furunculus]

I guess Uni don't hav-va da same big-ga balls as SocGen.

AII

facing ze guillotine:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...uillotine.html

[Adrian II]

facing ze guillotine:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...uillotine.html

Non, just ze usual jitters, eye theenk. The article makes clear that there is less reason for panic that in 2007. Maybe the news of France's zero growth has something to do with it. We'll have to see, won't we.

AII

[Furunculus]

ze germans try to persuade us that we should raise taxes to the eurozone average of 44.8% of GDP:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...779893,00.html

no thanks, that's just not british! :)